Air Serbia, the national airline of the Republic of Serbia, today made a significant achievement in that it began the gradual introduction of internet and mobile telephony “Air Serbia Wi-Fly” across their fleet of passenger aircraft Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft, offering its guests during the flight to be in touch with friends, family members and colleagues at work.
Air Serbia becomes the first airline in the region and one of the few airlines in Europe that provides Internet access and mobile services in the majority of its fleet.
This service is now officially introduced into service after it has successfully completed an extended period of public testing, which was conducted last week on one of the Airbus aircraft Air Serbia (PI-APJ), when members of Serbian online and ICT community, as well as regular passengers flights, had a chance to test the functioning of the new system and to provide feedback on their experience. All knowledge that are acquired in this way are used to the system is perfected before the official introduction to the work.
System for the connections on the fly provides Wi-Fi and mobile phone services. These services constitute the solution to the “Air Serbia Wi-Fly”, which runs the Panasonic global communications suite (GCS).
Customers will be able to connect to the network “Air Serbia Wi-Fly” and to use wireless broadband Internet access across all of their devices that support it, including smart phones, tablets and laptops, enabling them to from their comfortable seats in a plane sent by electronic mail, to search, to update their accounts on social networking sites, and more.
Dane Kondić, General Director of Air Serbia, on this occasion said: “With this achievement, we now truly deliver excellent customer service in the airline industry, thus fulfilling our commitment to continuously innovate in our product range and to provide our guests with even more choice, more convenience and entertainment. The system of “Air Serbia Wi-Fly ‘ will allow our guests connections which are similar to those that used at home or at work.”
Solution for connecting to mobile phone company includes agreements on roaming with the appropriate operators and customers will be able to access it via their GSM mobile phones that have been activated roaming, enabling them to perform outgoing and incoming calls, send and receive text messages and e-mail, as well as to use data services.
For security reasons, the service will be possible only when the seat-belt signs were turned off and once the plane reaches cruising altitude.
The new service also includes connectivity and Air Serbia “Wifly” portal, in Serbian and English, which guests will be able to search for free and gain access to the latest news, weather forecast and information about Air Serbia, its destination network and partner airlines.
On the occasion of the introduction of services, all guests in Business Class by the end of the year receive a free voucher for Internet access for 30 minutes. Prices of Internet access services will move of 4.90 euros for 30 minutes (limit to 20 MB download), 8.90 euros for 60 minutes (limit to 50 MB download) and € 13.90 for access during the summer (limit 90 MB download) and be able to pay by credit card (MasterCard, VISA, American Express, Discover and Diners Club). Vouchers for a 30 minutes will be able to buy in cash at the price of EUR 5 (600 RSD). The use of mobile phones will be charged to passengers through a regular account at the applicable tariff for roaming services.